The Alpha's Rebel

Chapter 26

"So what's the plan today?" I ask Maddox, resting my chin on his bare chest. He has his hands behind his head, slightly propping up his head so he can look at me. He has a lazy smile on his face, and I love it.

"I have to catch up on everything I missed while I was away. You're welcome to join me, or you can start exploring more," he responds, removing one hand from behind his head and bringing it to play with the ends of my hair.

"I want to explore," I say immediately, knowing full well that my exploring will not be in the woods like I most want. Maddox doesn't need to know that, though.

He grins at my quick response, and I'm glad that my eagerness is making an appearance. It's not a fake eagerness to put on a show, because I am eager to explore both the lands and the library. The library just has to come first so I can get to the bottom of the motherfucker who shot the arrow. I need to figure it out so I can make sure that my mate and my pack are protected.

"I love you," he says softly through the grin, and his words make my heart melt.

"I love you too," I smile, leaning forward to press my lips against his. Maddox tried to deepen the kiss, moving both of his hands to behind my head. I grin, reluctantly pulling away before he has the chance to get any more ideas. "Oh no, mister," I say, sitting up so I'm straddling his stomach and wagging a finger at him. "We both have work to do today."

"I know what kind of work I have to do," Maddox says, trailing his hand up my arm and pulling my back to him for another kiss.

"Smooth," I mumble, letting him and his ways entrap me once again. In the back of my mind, I know that he has work he has to catch up on and I have researching in the library to do, but this time, I can't find the strength to pull away. His lips on mine and the ways he's kissing me is too much for the mate bond to handle, and the amount of love I feel for Maddox starts ricocheting off every surface of my body.

How can anyone say no when they're put up against that?

It doesn't go any farther than a steamy make out session, and eventually, we both pull away very reluctantly. Maddox groans as I slip off the bed, and I grab his hand to pull him up with me. He wraps his arms around my lower back and tries to get me back into bed, but I laugh against his lips and push against his chest.

I'm laughing all the way into the bathroom, where I quickly strip away my clothes and start a hot shower, making sure to lock the door so Maddox can't come in. I would love to get distracted in everything about him, but the arrow is looming in the back of my mind. I need to figure out where and who it came from.

I hear the doorknob fail to turn and a grumble from the other side of the door as I massage shampoo into my hair, and I laugh again. I quickly finish showering and hop out, wrapping a towel around myself and unlocking the door as I start running a brush through my hair.

A shirtless Maddox opens the door and mutters, "You really know how to tease a guy, don't you?" Despite his grumbling, he comes up behind and wraps his arms around my waist, burying his face in my neck and making it impossible to keep brushing my hair. He inhales deeply, planting feathery light kisses on my collarbone, and I close me eyes to bask in the heavenly feeling. I strategically clench my fist at the top of my towel so I don't drop it, knowing that if it were to happen, we would lose what little control we have right now.

He works his way up to my ear and whispers, "I love you." With his pointer finger under my chin, he guides my lips to his, and I smile at the explosion of pure happiness that fills every part of my body. I feel it in the tips of fingers to the ends of my toes, through every strand of hair on my head to the shiver that hits every bone in my spine.

Against his lips, I murmur, "I love you too."

~~~~

An hour later, I'm in the massive pack library with no idea where I'm supposed to start searching. No one works here, so there's no one I can ask. Even if someone was here, though, I wouldn't ask them for help. The less people that know what I'm doing, the better.

I decide the best place to start is to masa me a list of all supernatural creatures. I find a secluded table in the way back corner of the library. It's darker and very well hidden, and it feels like my sanctuary as I figure out what the hell is going on.

I brought my backpack with me in case I wanted to bring any books back. I pull out the spiral notebook I found in Maddox's home office and a black pen, opening up to the first page and starting my list.

- Werewolves
- Vampires
- Witches
- Council Members

The main four is all I can think off. It's who we learned about in school, and I never thought to question if there were any more. Once my minusculelist of four is complete, though, I know there's more. I almost feel embarrassed of how blind I've been to the fact that there are definitely more supernatural creatures who live among us. The arrow definitely did not come from a werewolf, vampire, or witch. The style just doesn't line up. The council members wouldn't be secretly posing any kind of threat to anyone; their purpose is to keep the peace and handle the worst of the wrongdoings in the supernatural world.

So now I know exactly where I need to start. I get up from my table, leaving my notebook and backpack because I'm not worried about anyone seeing or taking them. Nobody else is in the library except for me.

I find the supernatural section of the library, glad that the different genres are easily organized. Once there, I'm not sure where to start, so I just start looking at titles. Anything to do with a species I've never heard of before or something that deals with all supernatural creatures.

And then a find a book that is taller and wider than the others with nothing written on the spine. When I pull it off the shelf, there's nothing in the front either. I flip open the first page, and the table of contents has a list of more creatures than I ever could have though possible, all with a line to the other side of the page with the page number.

I close the book and take it back to my table, opening it one more and scanning the list. Sirens, ghosts, demons, fairies, shapeshifters, elementals, psychics. I'm almost overwhelmed with how much I really don't know about the world that I am part of it. It's almost more overwhelming that out of all of the creatures I'm reading, not one of them seems like the type to use an arrow as a weapon.

At the bottom of the page, though, written in with a black pen to match the writing, I find just what I'm looking for. I look at the page number and flip to the back of the book. The single white page stands out amongst the creamier ones that have colored with age, and seeing the name at the top causes a weird and unsettling type of calm to wash over me. Next to the name, which is also handwritten, is the same bow and arrow symbol that was at the end of the arrow.

It's a hunter.